Chapter One

First of all, I find what Regie does fascinating. The idea of someone with such expertise being able to come into your classroom and guide you for an entire week would be amazing. As a new teacher I would find something like this very beneficial.
I especially liked reading the part about having high expectations for all students. I have always believed that high expectations need to be set for all students. Students will only jump as high as we set the bar. I was always disappointed when I would go into a classroom to observe and see students finishing their work rapidly with little effort put forth. In these cases the work that was given to them involved very little critical thinking and a lot of regurgitating information. These students were not given a challenge and were not being held to high expectations; they were simply going through required work that was put in front of them. Where there are low expectations there is also low engagement in learning.
I also found the part about teachers making excuses for less fortunate students interesting. It is easy to feel sorry for students who are in a bad situation and because of that, have lower expectations of them. I truly believe this is the worst thing you can do for that student because, it is only going to hurt them in the long-run.